¿Qué opinan? Firmas del día: 1/25/2013

Each day we will bring you an assortment of op-ed pieces from major Mexican dailies

El Universal

Bajo Reserva

While leaders of Mexico’s strongest political parties have decided to collaborate with Pacto por Mexico (PM), Gustavo Madero (head of PAN) and Jesus Zambrano (head of PRD) made an “under the table” alliance that plans to create an electoral reform. According to Bajo Reserva, the plan is to stop the PRI from winning the 2015 and 2018 elections by eliminating the vote buying system and controlling the triangulation resources used by candidates to fund their electoral campaigns.

As President Barack Obama’s administration introduces a proposal that plans to reform our current gun policy, it is important to take note of certain statistics that analyze armed violence. According to the study, “Violencia armada en las ciudades estadounidenses comparada con la de las naciones más violentas del mundo” (Armed Violence in U.S. cities compared to the armed violence in the most dangerous countries in the world), the homicide rate provoked by armed violence in Washington D.C. is almost twice is high than in Mexico.

Florence Cassez’s case leaves two lessons about Mexico’s judicial system. First, authorities cannot break the law before they try to apply it, and false evidence should not be created and used against anyone. Secondly, its important for Mexico’s judicial system to start using oral trials and evidence before declaring someone guilty.